


Hallownest Ever After

by SputNStuff



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Dark Fantasy, Discovery, Exploration, Fantasy, Mystery, Treasure Hunting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:01:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22888867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SputNStuff/pseuds/SputNStuff
Summary: A treasure hunter enters Hallownest to uncover any artifacts while exploring the fallen kingdom.
Relationships: Original Character(s)/Original Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	1. The Anxiety of an Explorer

**Author's Note:**

> This story will follow the "Dream no more" ending from the game and it takes place 2 days after the events of the game. Also this will have me trying to translate some of Hallownest's structure in-game as a fully 3d region.

****

**EXTERIOR - WASTELANDS** \- A chariot, pulled by a beast of burden, travels a vast wasteland with a masked STAG BEETLE driving it. He squints as a strong wind blows against his face while trying to focus on the destination, as the chariot moves at a slow but steady pace, with the wheels sinking into the grey sands.

**INTERIOR - INSIDE THE CHARIOT -** A MASKED SPIDER, wearing a grey dress, is sitting next to a small VESSEL with blue eyes and a bow, that watches her open a bottle and pour a red liquid onto a glass as she talks with a MOTH, who sits on the front seat of the chariot's interior, seemingly meditating but their left tarsus keeps anxiously tapping repeatedly on the seat.

**SPIDER:** I know I said this already, but I am grateful for you accepting this dangerous task, Lune. It was hard to find someone to do this for me.

The spider offers her glass to Lune, who declines the offer, raising their tarsus slightly and shaking their head, as the spider raises her mask enough to drink.

**SPIDER** (after taking a sip) **:** Are you nervous, my friend?

**LUNE:** Why wouldn't I be nervous, Tallulah?

**TALLULAH:** You spent the whole trip silent, like you were sleeping with open eyes. 

Lune sighs, holding their necklace by the purple dream catcher, held by the neck string, with a moth-like charm hanging by the same.

**LUNE:** Well, the place we're heading... Is Hallownest, isn't it?

The Vessel opens a map and hands it to Tallulah, who nods, silently answering Lune's question. The map shows a picture of a cliff, formed by various round rocks, with some of them having spiral-type fossils engraved with some posts carrying a royal emblem on their tip. The spider takes the map and places it on her front legs so that Lune can see it. 

**TALLULAH** (patting the vessel on their head) **:** Much appreciated, Lillibeth. 

Lillibeth nods their head as Tallulah puts her attention on both Lune and the map.

**Tallulah:** Although it would be easier for you to climb, I recommend you to try and move around the hills in order to avoid the guardian of the cliffs.

**Lune:** A guardian?

**Tallulah** (taking another sip) **:** According to the few survivors that returned, it's one of the reasons why many of my hunters never returned, and who knows of those who managed to get in. If it catches you, try to do what you do best and talk to it, otherwise try to stay alive.

Lune nods their head slowly as they put the map in their bag, gloomily thinking to themselves about the task that follows. Tallulah takes notice of the moth's hard to read but not obvious expression.

**Tallulah:** Are you afraid?

**Lune:** Wouldn't you?

Tallulah takes another sip, finishing her glass, looks at Lillibeth and pats their head again.

**Tallulah:** I would, but what are you more afraid of? Hallownest, or the task?

Lune remains silent, stubbornly attempting to hide their fears and anxiety, even though Tallulah is able to read them like a book. She leans to her hunter like she's attempting to read their mind, looking dead on at their eyes.

**Tallulah:** Tell me, what does Hallownest mean to you?

Lune sighs, finally breaking their silence after putting their tarsus over their necklace's dream catcher.

**Lune:** My family left that place long ago to travel the lands beyond. And i'm the first one to return to that place.

**Tallulah:** Yes, but what does it mean to you?

Lune breaks eye contact with her boss, not out of rudeness but because the intensity of her stare is too overwhelming, especially when it takes too long for their comfort.

**Lune** (sighs) **:** Nothing for now... but it's where my kind originated from, and returning there would almost be like returning to a home you didn't know you belonged to.

**Tallulah:** And that's where your anxiety comes from, my friend?

Lune nods their head silently, taking slow deep breaths to try and keep calm. Lillibeth sits next to the moth to pat the arm in an attempt to ease their anxiety. 

**Tallulah:** So you're not afraid to potentially die? 

**Lune:** It's one of the fears i have, yes, but it pales to the one i have for what awaits me there.

**Tallulah:** Does that mean you're prepared to die if it comes to that?

Lune takes a few seconds before attempting to answer the Spider's question but the chariot stops, finally reaching its destination.

**Stag Beetle:** We're here boss, there's that pole with the royal emblem on top of it like you mentioned. 

Tallulah grins under her mask as Lune picks the supply bag on their right side, as well as opening the right door to exit the chariot.

****

**EXTERIOR - NEAR HOWLING CLIFFS -** Lune exits the chariot as they see a steel pole with a royal crest on its top, near a large cliff with round-shaped rocks, some of them having some sort of spiral fossil within them, as well as a corpse of a large bug next to the chariot, half-buried in the grey sand wastes. As the winds blow on their face, the moth takes some time to breathe the atmosphere of the wastelands, trying to focus as the anxiety within almost takes over them, while they head to the back of the chariot.

**Tallulah:** You haven't answered my question, Lune. Are you prepared to die or not?

Lune stops for a few seconds, letting out a worried sigh while they pick up a spear-like nail from the back of the chariot.

**Lune:** I have no plans to die there.

**Tallulah:** That's the answer I want to hear from you. It would be a shame for Prickle to lose his favorite sparring partner.

**Lune:** If that's the case, then it's best not to promise that I'll return.

Tallulah chuckles at the moth's attempt at a snarky comment and both she and Lillibeth wave goodbye before closing the chariot's door. The Stag Beetle gives a farewell salute before turning the chariot in the opposite direction, leaving Lune alone, next to the pole with a royal-looking symbol on its top, armed only with their long-ranged melee weapon and supplied with whatever is in the bag.

Lune looks at the large cliffs before them for a while. Beyond them lies the entrance to Hallownest, a forgotten kingdom where few are the ones who managed to return, if at all. They take a deep breath in another attempt to calm themselves, as the cliffs' imposing size don't make it easy for their anxiety as their tarsus starts to tap on the bag's handle before starting to walk. After looking around for the best path to climb, the moth finds a curious entrance to a dark cave at the base of the cliffs. Looking at the inside of the cave, they can barely see what's beyond due to the deep darkness presented within the cave, so they take out a lumafly lantern out of the bag, a small glass sphere, no larger than the moth's head, with three tiny bright bugs, smaller than a pebble, that give off a light bright enough to light the path inside the cavern.

**INTERIOR - DARK CAVERN -** Lune wanders in the cave, with their lantern lighting the path, taking slow steps as they go in deeper. The deep blue rocky walls of the cavern offer a relaxing atmosphere as the wind can still be heard from a distance, whistling in the cave's mouth, as well as water dropping from stalactites. Despite all that, The treasure hunter remains in guard, fearing a surprise attack from beasts. Reaching the end of the cave, they find a completely out of place chest with its lid open. Inspecting it closer, Lune finds that the chest is not only large enough for them to fit in, but there's a dark tunnel leading downwards. Lune takes out an uncharted map from the bag, alongside a flask of ink and a quill, and starts charting a path to the cave they're in as well as the tunnel leading to the chest with a downward path to somewhere, marking it with the words "Tunnel in the chest, bring a rope and a light". As soon as they're done charting, Lune puts the map and the equipment back in the bag and takes out a rope, tying it to a grappling hook, which is hooked on a stable enough rock formation as they throw the rest of the rope into the dark descent. After a few deep breaths, Lune finally grabs the rope and climbs down the dark tunnel from inside the chest, slowly going down, hoping for the best.


	2. Greenpath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lune has reached Greenpath, a beautiful area with plenty of life growing all around. However, even the most beautiful flowers have their thorns...

**INTERIOR - BALDUR NEST**

The whistling winds start to fade as Lune reaches the downward tunnel's end and a new area reveals itself they. Although it has same deep blue walls present all around like in the previous cave, this one is much wider and full of large round shelled bugs and some smaller ones. The moth jumps off from the rope, taking their time to look around the cave they find themselves in as the silence almost lowers their guard, feeling a bit less anxious despite landing on what is pretty much a crypt for these fallen beasts, almost like they're used to these kinds of places, helping Lune's mind be more at peace, as they take a closer look at one of the larger, almost fossil-like, shells, and despite the cold temperature surrounding the silent, graveyard-like cave, the dead bug feels cold to the touch and even though it's unknown for how long it perished, it's obvious that it's been like this for many many years. Catching their eye, are two corpses of creatures wielding the same type of shell lying on the floor, next a bunch smaller ones scattered between the two, all of them feeling warmer than the rest of the curled creatures upon closer inspection.

As Lune takes out their spear-like nail to carve out some of the innards of the more freshly killed creatures to check if it's still edible, they spot a tiny creature, resembling one of the smaller shells, as it tackles the moth away from its fallen brethren, hitting with enough strength to hurt, but not injuring them terribly, as the small living shell hisses angrily at the moth, acting like a protective guardian in its fallen sanctuary despite going up against someone not only larger, but more than able to fight back after the surprise tackle. Lune stands back up, looking at the creature with pity, taking out what is essentially a bug that has just gone through its grub phase would be too easy and not worth the effort to drive the whole species to extinction, so they put their weapon down to take out some rations from their bag, splitting some of it and giving it to the small creature for it to eat. The creature approaches the food slowly while keeping an eye on the moth wary of its intentions as it takes the small piece of food and starts to eat it. as Lune picks up their weapon and heads to a path leading away from the shelled bugs' lair, leaving the little shell all alone with its brethren.

**INTERIOR - MOSSY CAVERNS AND ABANDONED STORAGE ROOM**

The deep blue rocks that have been forming the walls of the caverns so far have started to show some life as Lune notices plenty of moss and all kinds of vegetation growing all around, more tiny creatures of different sizes and shapes crawling and flying around the area and some unique structures like stone posts and what seemed to look like smooth egg-shaped green rocks carved with a spiral. This unexpected beauty is enough to leave Lune in awe as the moss cave's ambiance eases their worries for good, despite finding it odd that plants are able to grow underground, not that it matters to the moth as they take a nice and calm deep breath, breathing in the lively aroma of the surroundings, however, some weird and out-of-place blue plants with cyan butterfly-shaped leaves, located near the ceiling of the cave, catches their eyes and curiosity as they choose to approach it in order to observe it up close. Nearing the cyan leaves of this mysterious plant, a small moss rustle startles Lune, as they swiftly turn around to where they think the sound came from, their tarsus holding their ready to be unsheathed weapon, only to spot nothing except for a small mossy creature crawling into a more lit passage. Lune sighs, feeling embarrassed by getting startled my a tiny, harmless bug as they lower their tarsus away from their weapon and starts to advance towards the passage, curious about the lit area.

Jumping from the passage, Lune finds what seems to be an abandoned bug-made structure, a huge contrast to the natural looking caves they were just in, despite sharing the same deep blue tone of the areas before with a familiar emblem, similar to the posts from the wastes near the cliffs, carved on the ceilings with empty containers littering the ground alongside, moss spread all across the floor and a couple of round shaped bug corpses, about the same size as Lune, lying on top of dried orange liquid spread across the smooth floor. Lune, feeling slightly uncomfortable at the presence of the dead bodies, approaches one and sees that the wounds that did the husks in look like they were done by a blunt weapon as the damaged thorax shows a nasty cracked cut across it. On the other side of the room, Lune spots some stairs that lead downwards, with holes, missing steps and a railings either decaying or gone, and despite the current state, the moth goes down the stairs without issues, avoiding the stair's holes with each carefully planned step. On the lower floor, Lune finds the same as the one above, with the few differences being the ceiling being higher and helix-shaped carts spread around the room, a window with a view to the outside covered by a steel fence with that same royal symbol and a large door frame leading outside of the structure. While treading carefully through some of the littered bug corpses, similar to the ones one the floor above, the sounds of a few containers falling on the floor catches Lune's attention, who abruptly turns around to only see a couple of fallen containers near the stairs. At this point, the moth is starting to feel like they're being stalked by something, the last thing they need at this point as their mind is filled with distress so they head near the fallen containers, with their weapon ready to be drawn, a look behind them only to find a weird, fresh blue drops but nothing else. After a frustrated sigh, Lune heads outside of the structure, however, one of the containers opens from behind their back.

**PILGRIM'S WAY - GREENPATH'S WILDS**

As soon as Lune leaves the structure, a larger cave, even more lively than the moss cave they were previously. Just outside of the mysterious structure a large broken road, built with the same stone, still standing proudly above a river of acid despite its aged state with some of of parts either shattered or split. While advancing through the ancient road, Lune takes some time to take a deep breath to sense the fresh aroma of the massive cave they're in for the diverse fauna present; from the moss vines, roots and ceiling grass above their heads; the mossy, grass and various weeds growing on the path; the smooth bubbling sound the acid river makes and the various plants growing in both the walls and floor of this new massive grotto; it almost makes Lune forget that they're still inside a cave as they exhale, their mind at ease, but their guard still up as they remain focused on their task. After some travel time, Lune reaches the end of their current path and sees the broken path's continuation on the other side of the cave, unable to reach the other end even if they jump. After taking some time to chart the path they took in their map, the moth checks below and sees the acid river from their side pouring downwards as well as a second river that comes from the other end and both meet and travel through an alternative path and said path, and despite the presence of both rivers crossing it's still possible to resume travelling normally as long as Lune is careful not to slip in the moss-covered rocks that surround the acidic rivers. 

After a long travel through the wilds, finding various limping and sick looking beasts, Lune finds a third bridge over the bigger river they've been following, which ends its path by pouring as a waterfall. Lune takes this moment to take a small break to eat some of their rations before carrying on with their path, however a small moving creature catches their eye, looking different from the moss-covered creatures as all the moth could see of it was the large pale head and lively blue eyes before it hid itself behind one of the spiral rocks. Lune splits the ration and holds it towards the mysterious creature, as an attempt to have it approach them, while carefully trying to get close to it. The mysterious creature slowly pokes out of its hideout, looking like it wants to approach the seemingly kind moth, however it startles itself with a large figure creeping behind Lune, with a large lanky shell with a head covered with moss and stones shaped like teeth across its face, to which six eyes shine brightly with the thrill of killing an unsuspecting prey, causing the frightened creature to throw a pebble at Lune in an attempt to warn them of the danger creeping behind them, however the pebble doesn't reach far enough, only landing at Lune's leg, the moth finding it odd that the creature is sort of showing signs of aggression while pointing above the moth. It is for naught, Lune is held on the floor by the large lanky HUNTER bug, whose hand keeps them from moving too much and even grabbing their weapon.

**HUNTER:** It has been too long since careless adventurers like you traveled these lands.

The Hunter speaks in a sadistic tone, like he's enjoying watching Lune, his prey, struggling to escape his grip to no avail.

**HUNTER** (chuckling): Look at you, hopelessly trying to free yourself so you could live for another day, oh how i missed this.

The Hunter leans in to whisper Lune, his eyes showing signs of delight as he meets Lune's, making direct eye contact.

**HUNTER** (whispering): I'll be merciful and end it quickly for you, adventurer.

After saying that, the Hunter is hit by some pebbles thrown by the mysterious creature Lune was interacting a few moments ago and after the fourth pebble, the Hunter angrily turns his attention towards the creature, buying Lune some time. 

**HUNTER:** You... are you in a rush to die, tiny squib?

The mysterious creature stands tall despite being unarmed aside from the pebbles it was throwing, the Hunter looking at it more carefully and looking intrigued. Meanwhile, Lune finally finds a way to escape. 

**HUNTER:** Your shape and size... yes, you're like the one who proved themselves as a true hunter days ago. Why are...

Lune manages to use their strength to push the Hunter's thumb and rolls away from his grasp. The Hunter, realizing his prey escaped his clutches, looks at the moth, wielding their spear-shaped nail pointed towards him, as he smirks at the lucky prey who stands defiant at the predator of the mossy wilds.

**HUNTER:** Well aren't you resourceful? But ask yourself this, morsel.

The Hunter leans forward, preparing himself to leap.

**HUNTER:** Have i let you escape to give myself the rush of fighting a prey? 

Lune squints, their tarsus holding their spear-like nail firmly.

**HUNTER:** Because you wouldn't have been able to escape otherwise... my prey.

The Hunter leaps towards Lune, who dashes away from the large predator that misses his target and turns himself to the moth, focused and determined to devour them. Meanwhile, the Mysterious Creature hides themselves, hoping the Hunter won't see them.

**HUNTER** (chuckling) **:** Yeeeees, I love a prey that stands defiant towards their inevitable fate. Rest assured adventurer, I'll enjoy eating your carcass once I'm done with you.

Lune takes a few steps backwards, looking briefly at the waterfall on their left and then back at the Hunter, feinting a strike from their nail to which the Hunter answers by violently attempting to claw the moth as a warning shot, to which is thankfully dodged as Lune jumps over the attack and attempts to strike the large predator over his head with their weapon only for the Hunter to defend himself by shielding himself with their hand, the nail stabbing the hand deep but successfully protecting the predator and leaving Lune open to a vicious punch, which knocks Lune next to the acid waterfall cliff.

**HUNTER:** A valiant attempt, morsel.

The Hunter removes the nail from his wounded hand and throws it back to the moth, still in pain.

**HUNTER:** Come at me with all you have, I know this isn't your best.

Lune stands up, picking up their weapon, still shaken by the Hunter's strong strike. They realize now they can't win against this large force of nature so they look at the only way out, below the waterfall cliff, whose height isn't that large but they find below a piece of broken bridge above the river and beyond it a large lake with spiky-shelled creatures swimming on the acid lake. 

**HUNTER:** Running from me will only worsen your fate, morsel.

Lune looks back at the Hunter and briefly at the cliff. After a "think fast" moment, Lune jumps at the cliff, their wings helping the moth glide at the broken bridge at the bottom, but the Hunter gives chase, climbing down at the stone part of the cliff, pursuing their prey, and leaping at the broken bridge below in an attempt to catch Lune, but the moth dashes away from him, jumping on top of the spiky-shelled creatures at the lake until they reach the other end. The Hunter looks at the moth at the other side of the lake, amused at the swiftness of his prey.

**HUNTER** (chuckling): Your swiftness will do you good morsel, you better hope we don't meet again.

The Hunter turns around and climbs the cliff back to his lair, while Lune sits near a mossy wall, shaking from the shock and breathing heavily, relieved just to be able to survive the most dangerous encounter he had ever experienced. They hold the dream catcher in their neck string, whispering prayers as the moth lies down, trying to sleep in this tiny cave, away from the dangers of the wilderness above.


End file.
